Emily Brooke is a British entrepreneur who created the BLAZE laserlight. Emily studied physics at Oxford University and product design at Brighton University.

She raised £55,000 project funding via Kickstarter in 2012 as well as funding from Index Ventures and approx £300,000 from other sources including Richard Branson's investment fund. You can purchase a BLAZE directly from her company's website.

The BLAZE works by beaming a bright symbol of a bicycle onto the road ahead so that driver's are made aware of approaching cyclists. Technically the BLAZE is not a 'connected' device so doesn't fall within the IOT domain, however, we love Emily's story because she is a true "Maker". She wasn't willing to accept the status quo so she came up with an idea. The world is full of good ideas but most people fail to implement them. Emily didn't allow her idea to remain in her head or dissipate into the ether. Instead she found excellent partners, created a prototype, obtained funding, put it into production, formulated a marketing strategy and found distribution channels. Now that my friends is how a Maker operates!

The process of taking a product from concept to reality is no mean feat and this is something we plan to explore in detail within future posts. In the meantime we hope you have enjoyed the first in our "Maker/Hacker" series of posts featuring some of the most influential people in the industry. More to follow...

We aim to help the IOT ecosystem by connecting hardware and software professionals, academics, entrepreneurs, enthusiasts, hobbyists, investors, and early-adopters. We believe the "Maker Revolution" will lead to incredible innovations that will enrich the lives of millions of consumers and employees throughout the world.

OUR FOCUS

Anything relating to the Internet of Things including drones, wearables and connected devices of every kind. The IOT will increasingly affect us all as smart devices become ubiquitous in the home, work place and within industry. We aim to help hardware startup entrepreneurs promote their products, and deliver news about anything IOT-related.